Watertown attorney David Renzi will seek the Republican nomination for the 48th Senate District race, the Watertown Daily Times reports today. Renzi, 39, a former public defender who ran unsuccessfully for the 118th Assembly District in 2002, is looking to challenge Democratic Sen. Darrel Aubertine, who won a special election this year to fill out […] More »

Fresh from eye surgery, Gov. David Paterson will do a live interview today on WAMC’s Vox Pop with Alan Chartock. You can hear it at 2 p.m. on 90.3FM around Albany, various other Northeast Public Radio stations, or on the Web here. More »

An admittedly small survey of journalists finds that reporters are regularly reading blogs and social Web sites (like Facebook and MySpace), but have mixed feelings about whether new media is helping or hurting news reporting. Most reporters on the various beats surveyed – lifestyle, travel, healthcare, politics and technology – said new media is having […] More »

A Reuters/Zogby poll out today finds Democrat Barack Obama with a ten-point lead over Republican John McCain, 47-37 percent, with McCain and Hillary Clinton virutally tied, 41-40 percent. The poll, of also found that nationwide, Democrats favor Obama over Clinton 59-33 percent. It further suggests that Libertarian Bob Barr would do more damage to McCain […] More »

That idea may come to pass, but you’ll have to live in Alaska to take advantage of it. Gov. Sarah Palin, a Republican, suggests giving residents $100-a-month debit cards for gas, heating fuel, electricity or other energy purchases. Before you suggest New York do the same thing, consider this: Alaska can well afford the $1.2 […] More »

That idea may come to pass, but you’ll have to live in Alaska to take advantage of it. Gov. Sarah Palin, a Republican, suggests giving residents $100-a-month debit cards for gas, heating fuel, electricity or other energy purchases. Before you suggest New York do the same thing, consider this: Alaska can well afford the $1.2 […] More »

If you’re wondering which agencies and other government entities have the most pensioners in the state retirement system making $100,000 a year or more here’s a spreadsheet, courtesy of our database analyst, Aaron Ancel. The sheet shows the employer, how many times each employer appears in the database (“count”) and the dollar total of all […] More »

If you saw Jim Odato’s story Sunday on the state retirement system’s top pensioner and wanted a look at the full list of the 899 people in the plus-$100,000 range, here’s a spreadsheet. We’ll have another story on this in tomorrow’s paper. Meanwhile, think “triple dip.” More »

If you saw Jim Odato’s story Sunday on the state retirement system’s top pensioner and wanted a look at the full list of the 899 people in the plus-$100,000 range, here’s a spreadsheet. We’ll have another story on this in tomorrow’s paper. Meanwhile, think “triple dip.” More »

If you haven’t booked your Tuesday night yet: Melissa Harris-Lacewell, associate professor of politics and African American Studies at Princeton University, will discuss “Race and the 2008 Election” at 7 p.m. in the Nott Memorial at Union College. Harris-Lacewell is a frequent commentator on various national news programs and wrote the award-winning book, “Barbershops, Bible […] More »

Here’s video of the encounter today between advocates of bullet microstamping and opponents who crashed their press conference (see post below). You can also watch a video explaining the technology here. (Video by Will Waldron / Times Union) More »

Jennifer Dlouhy of our Washington bureau sends this report on Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand’s hand in last week’s farm bill: The $300 billion farm bill passed by Congress last week includes a handful of measures authored by Gillibrand, including the first bill the freshman lawmaker introduced after entering Congress. The House and Senate passed the legislation […] More »

Jennifer Dlouhy of our Washington bureau sends this report on Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand’s hand in last week’s farm bill: The $300 billion farm bill passed by Congress last week includes a handful of measures authored by Gillibrand, including the first bill the freshman lawmaker introduced after entering Congress. The House and Senate passed the legislation […] More »

We are getting more dinged comments than usual this week. A few reminders. We don’t allow personal attacks, we don’t allow expletives, unless you are directly quoting or referencing a news item. 1. “Do us all a favor and ban the troll!!! [deleted] clearly can’t think for herself and brings nothing to the table but […] More »

PEF Rep - 30 yr member: The three years of work done and paid for by the members Shredded. Is this rhe heart of a...

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Capitol Confidential gathers the best coverage of New York politics and puts it all together. Each section - Capitol, The State Worker, New York on the Potomac, and Voices - represents a unique facet of the political scene. The Capitol section features coverage from the Times Union Capitol bureau. The State Worker is dedicated to state worker issues. New York on the Potomac offers news of interest to New Yorkers from Washington. And Voices features the best of everything else, pointing you to columnists and bloggers from across the Web.